How strong are rib bones

Blinkk

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I've got a scene where the MC has finally located his Master's gravesite. While he's digging up the grave, the person who murdered his master shows up. I would love, love, love for the MC to have a rib in his hand and then turn around and stab this enemy with his master's rib bone. I've done some research on how strong bones are, but I all I keep finding is research on living bones. Does anyone know if dead bones become brittle? How long does that take? I know dogs chew on them for hours, but those are usually cooked, processed bones.

Could you stab someone with a rib bone? It doesn't have to kill, or even do sustaining damage. It's a heated and emotional scene and it's really the irony that I'm after. I guess it's just bonus points if the rib can actually pierce flesh.
 

konstantineblacke

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I've got a scene where the MC has finally located his Master's gravesite. While he's digging up the grave, the person who murdered his master shows up. I would love, love, love for the MC to have a rib in his hand and then turn around and stab this enemy with his master's rib bone. I've done some research on how strong bones are, but I all I keep finding is research on living bones. Does anyone know if dead bones become brittle? How long does that take? I know dogs chew on them for hours, but those are usually cooked, processed bones.

Could you stab someone with a rib bone? It doesn't have to kill, or even do sustaining damage. It's a heated and emotional scene and it's really the irony that I'm after. I guess it's just bonus points if the rib can actually pierce flesh.

I work in the medical field, and this analogy may be appropriate for you: "There is a timeless analogy about a bundle of sticks. Alone one stick is easy to break, but if you group many together they become stronger. Yay teamwork. The same analogy is true of ribs, when bunched up they do become an extremely strong protective force for your chest cavity. Alone, whilst not as strong, they do pose some threat though. With their natural hook shape a single rib can quickly come into its own."

So perhaps get your hero to grab a 'bunch' of ribs to do as you need in the story. So even if bones have become brittle, a few of them used should counter that :)

Hope that helps.
 
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Blinkk

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I work in the medical field, and this analogy may be appropriate for you: "There is a timeless analogy about a bundle of sticks. Alone one stick is easy to break, but if you group many together they become stronger. Yay teamwork. The same analogy is true of ribs, when bunched up they do become an extremely strong protective force for your chest cavity. Alone, whilst not as strong, they do pose some threat though. With their natural hook shape a single rib can quickly come into its own."

So perhaps get your hero to grab a 'bunch' of ribs to do as you need in the story. So even if bones have become brittle, a few of them used should counter that :)

Hope that helps.

Thank you, this is very helpful.

Is there another bone that might work as a single blunt object? Because the MC is so emotional right now, I'd like for him to be highly reactionary. Gathering up a lot of bones and bundling them all together is a little too premeditated for what I'm looking for. I suppose I can make ribs work, but maybe replacing a rib with something else is the way to go.
 

neandermagnon

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if the rib bone is broken so it has a sharp point, it wouldn't need to be all that strong to penetrate flesh. It's about pressure (think of how a stiletto heel does more damage to a floor than an elephant standing on it or how a sharp knife is easier to cut with than a blunt one) so if you have a sharp bit of broken rib, your character could stab someone with that and it probably would at least break the flesh. Given that you're talking about recently exhumed bones, there would be a substantial risk of infection, due to all the bacteria breaking down the body and in the soil generally - including a risk of tetanus from the soil. Hope the character who got stabbed is up to date on his tetanus jabs.

(If you do want him to die, actual death from infection isn't that likely if he's young, fit and strong, albeit he could get a nasty infection and need antibiotics or other hospital treatment. I'd find it a little too convenient if it just so happened he'd not been vaccinated against tetanus, though with careful foreshadowing it may work. There may be other possible infections and if he's not so fit, young or strong then he's more likely to die from infection. Sepsis resulting from the infected wound is another possibility. If you weren't planning on him dying but just being inconvenienced, a painful wound followed by a nasty painful infection and a course of antibiotics would definitely be an inconvenience.)

ETA: I realise I'm assuming it's all contemporary. If this happened before there were vaccines and antibiotics then dying from these kinds of infections would obviously be more probable.
 
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konstantineblacke

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Thank you, this is very helpful.

Is there another bone that might work as a single blunt object? Because the MC is so emotional right now, I'd like for him to be highly reactionary. Gathering up a lot of bones and bundling them all together is a little too premeditated for what I'm looking for. I suppose I can make ribs work, but maybe replacing a rib with something else is the way to go.

No problem. If it were my character I'd grab the femur, snap it in half and use that (and what I mean by that is how you would snap a branch, using your knee as leverage) Even if it's brittle and breaks (because of how long the dead person has been in the ground), it would be far more effective than a weak rib that's curved naturally (and will break with minor pressure at the apex of that curve).
 
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MaeZe

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A femur would make a good club, not a knife or spear unless you had some tools to fashion it.

It's all about fulcrums and applied force. Stab with a rib bone and you have all the strength of the bone behind the point. Lean it over a curb and step on it and it will break.

As for aging after death, assuming the person has been dead long enough that the body is skeletonized, it takes a long time for that skeleton to disintegrate after the flesh does. I think it's credible your character could snap a rib off the sternum, breaking it leaving a sharp point and stab with it. Ribs are connected to the sternum by cartilage so that leaves you a place to break it off.

Have the character make a curving stab to match the curving of the rib, keeping it straight-on as she strikes.
 
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CWatts

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How did his master die? If he tried to defend himself, it's possible he could have broken his ulna (pinkie side of the forearm). Google "nightstick fracture" for examples.
 

MaeZe

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How did his master die? If he tried to defend himself, it's possible he could have broken his ulna (pinkie side of the forearm). Google "nightstick fracture" for examples.

That's an excellent option. Also, bones already broken is a great way to have a ready-to-go stabbing stick.
 

Blinkk

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if the rib bone is broken so it has a sharp point, it wouldn't need to be all that strong to penetrate flesh. It's about pressure so if you have a sharp bit of broken rib, your character could stab someone with that and it probably would at least break the flesh.

Awesome awesome, this is just the sort of info I was hoping for. The MC is a trained fighter, so he'll know about angles, pressure, and momentum. Thank you!
 

Blinkk

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No problem. If it were my character I'd grab the femur, snap it in half and use that (and what I mean by that is how you would snap a branch, using your knee as leverage) Even if it's brittle and breaks (because of how long the dead person has been in the ground), it would be far more effective than a weak rib that's curved naturally (and will break with minor pressure at the apex of that curve).

Got'cha! This is definitely more along the lines of what I was hoping for. I do like the availability of snapping a bone over your knee. That's the sort of instantaneous reaction I'm looking for. I'll take a deeper look into this suggestion.

A femur would make a good club, not a knife or spear unless you had some tools to fashion it.

It's all about fulcrums and applied force. Stab with a rib bone and you have all the strength of the bone behind the point. Lean it over a curb and step on it and it will break.

Hey, in this situation a club can work too. Minimum I'm looking for is blunt force. Stabbing would be nice, but I worry about the bone snapping in a stabby scenario. Sure why not? We can club our villain in the face with a bone. Very gentlemanlike. :D

How did his master die? If he tried to defend himself, it's possible he could have broken his ulna (pinkie side of the forearm). Google "nightstick fracture" for examples.

Haha I'm glad you asked. We are in a high fantasy world, and a very, very, very old demon came for the Master. The demon removed the Master's left arm as he was dying, so if we wanted a scenario where the bones are already disassembled, we already have a lovely situation to use. I can change the arm to another body part, no problem. If I wanted a femur, I could make it a leg that comes off.
 

P.K. Torrens

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The femur would have to have been in the ground for a looooong time before you could snap it over your knee.

The big bones of the body e.g. femur, humerus etc. are incredibly strong to a simple force like that. There is no way you could snap it.

You could stab the antagonist in the eye with the rib - penetrating clothes and skin would be difficult unless they'd snapped it with a very sharp edge.

If you are looking for a good reactionary moment, then grabbing the femur and using it like a club is your best bet. It is hard. The tools we need to drill through the bastards are sharp.
 

Blinkk

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You could stab the antagonist in the eye with the rib - penetrating clothes and skin would be difficult unless they'd snapped it with a very sharp edge.

If you are looking for a good reactionary moment, then grabbing the femur and using it like a club is your best bet. It is hard. The tools we need to drill through the bastards are sharp.

Awesome, thanks for your input. This is actually exactly how the current draft goes. Bone in eye, ouch. I don't know if I'll keep that, so I'm just looking for other options. Thank you for your input. I'll take it into consideration.